Sample Case Study

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In relation to my design process topic, we are supposed to find a sample case study that is similar. In this case, I actually found several interesting case study that is quite similar to my topic, which is a safety bathroom for the elders. Lots of case study that is relating to the bathroom for old people, often connects to a survey about falling or slipping particularly in the bathroom or other rooms in the homes and the reason why it happened.

Most of the case study is about cross sectional survey with the elders (, or it usually is an environmental assessment of the homes of the elders. Results from the case study vary a lot, however all conclusion is quite similar to one another. It is found that hazards in the bathroom that are found are around 59%, whereas in other rooms, the hazards are about 23% to 42%. On other survey, 1/3 of the elders that are in the case study confessed that their falls were related to the toilet as well as bath tub. The conclusion of the survey mostly state that the big cause of the elders injured themselves in bathroom is because of the lack of grab bars for the elders to hang on, wobbly toilet seat, poor lighting and wet floors. These factors are found to be very dangerous for all elders particularly for those who don’t have good balance and good vision, or their sensory motor is not as good, they may not be as strong and can’t really support themselves, etc. Therefore the solution provided was adding more grab bars, have a safety or adjustable toilet seat, providing brighter lighting as well as wipe floors when it’s wet.

Looking to different examples of case study and its solution gave me lots of ideas on how to solve my topic on creating a safety bathroom for the elders. I find all of the surveys useful and helping, however, I think some of the solution is not as detail. This case study can actually be developed more. When I think it over, the bathtub can also be a problem for the senior citizens, as well as storage place or the bathroom size itself. Not only the renovation part of the bathroom that can provide security for them, what about adapting to the new bathroom after adding bars, changing things, etc. There are more detailed things that can be asked or surveyed. Nonetheless, these are clearly things that I can improve when my group and I are designing a case study.

Case study reference:

• T M Gill, C S Williams, J T Robison, and M E Tinetti.  A population-based study of environmental hazards in the homes of older persons. American Journal of Public Health April 1999: Vol. 89, No. 4, pp. 553-556. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.89.4.553 < http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.89.4.553 >
• Aminzadeh, Faranak. “Utilization of Bathroom Safety Devices, Patterns of Bathing and Toileting, and Bathroom Falls in a Sample of Community Living Older Adults.” Utilization of Bathroom Safety Devices, Patterns of Bathing and Toileting, and Bathroom Falls in a Sample of Community Living Older Adults. IOS Press, 01 Jan. 2000. Web. 01 Feb. 2015. < http://iospress.metapress.com/content/7w37qayjyhlx0r3t/ >.

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